JANE EYRE

Romantic drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Mia Wasikowska: 19-year-old Jane Eyre (pronounced jane air)
Jamie Bell: Reverend St. John Rivers
Holliday Grainger: one of his sisters Diana
Tamzin Merchant: the other sister Mary
Michael Fassbender: wealthy Edward Fairfax Rochester
Judi Dench: his housekeeper Mrs. Fairfax
Romy Settbon Moore: 10-year-old or so Adele

REVIEW
Full disclosure: the story definitely has more appeal to women so keep that in mind when considering the following “unbiased” review.

This latest effort from the BBC Studios proves once again that no one does period drama better than the British in terms of high production values.

However it comes up short in four other areas:
1. The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge said that “if a writer could infuse human interest and a semblance of truth into a fantastic tale then likely the reader would suspend judgment concerning the implausibility of the narrative”. Certainly that is a requirement with regard to the romantic aspect of the story. In a word, it does not ring true.
2. The acting is all over the place: Wasikowska and Judi Dench are great, Fassbender does a decent job but Sally Hawkins is rather lacklustre.
3. The film goes on far too long at just over two hours.
4. But worst than that they squandered away a key element as one audience member so succinctly put it “the ending is far too abrupt and not nearly as satisfying as in the original novel by Charlotte Brontë”.

CLASSIFICATION
for some thematic elements including a nude image (it’s a painting for Pete’s sake, why so harsh?) and brief violent content (very brief and not very violent).